Starless
by StrawHatChick
Summary: Ace was my star. My one real star. But now that my star was put out, my world was now truly starless. AceLu. Ace x Luffy. I don't know if I should keep this as a oneshot or multi-chapter. Please leave a review/PM me on what you think! :) Rated T, may be M in the future. DISCLAIMER: I do not own One Piece.


**!IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE PLEASE READ!**

**Hello! :) This is my new AceLu story! I'm not sure if I should keep it as a oneshot or a multi-chapter. But if it's a multi-chapter, I'll be adding ZoLu into the plot. PLEASE leave a review or PM me about what you think! (I actually got some inspiration from the song 'Airplanes' by B.o.B! :)**

**Note: Everything will be in Luffy's POV, unless stated otherwise.**

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own One Piece, if I did I wouldn't be writing this, I'd be in Japan making some manga.**

**Note (again): Ace and Luffy are kids in the flashback, Luffy is 17 in normal mode, and Naguri is still Naguri.**

**[Starless.]**

Ace and I always used to sit under the night sky on a grassy hill, under a big willow tree.

~ Nobody's POV ~

"_Ace! Let me sit on your lap!" Luffy grinned down at his older brother, who sat cross-legged on the soft grass. The teasing breeze ruffled their dark hair._

_Ace sighed and grasped his baby brother around his tiny waist, bringing him down on his lap. Luffy giggled and snuggled backwards into Ace's chest, nuzzling his shoulder._

_Sitting on the big hill, full of flowers and trees, they could look out on the city. Lights were glowing everywhere, and they lit up the dark land. They were like tiny, yellow dots painted on a dark blue canvas. But they resembled something else even more._

_Stars._

The city the two brothers lived in never had stars. Never. Not even once. No matter any time, any day, any month of any year, not a single star could be seen from the city.

Nobody knew why.

Ace and Luffy had only heard about the tiny white lights on the streets, seen them in fairy tales and talked about them in quiet whispers. The stars had them in wonder.

The stories of the stars always told them that the lights were like pretty butterflies, lamp lights, small flickers, dots, anything. The pictures and the paintings and the drawings scrawled onto the books were just fantastic tales that the two boys could only dream of.

But Ace and Luffy believed something else. That each star was the flickering light of a life, like a steady flame that crackled and swayed. Maybe even a little boy, somewhere around the world, who was looking up at a starless sky, just like them.

And Luffy grew excited just thinking about it; because someday, when they got out of that city they called home; above the puffy clouds; they would get to see a breathtaking view of a starry sky; One star for every person living.

Even the older sibling couldn't help but be hopeful for that someday too.

And not seeing the stars… Always made Luffy sad, because the stars were something that gave the little boy hope and joy. Even pure wonder and amazement.

Maybe because they reminded the straw hat of himself. A tiny, little star in a big, black sky. Just like a tiny, little boy in a big, black world.

Maybe because they twinkled, and looked really pretty against the black background. Luffy could be so unpredictable sometimes. It was hard for Ace to figure out why his baby brother loved the stars so much that he could cry and wail about them.

And Luffy didn't just look ordinarily sad without the stars, he would look _crushed_.

All the light would disappear from his eyes and the giggle would die on his lips. His face wouldn't have that childish glow, and he wouldn't smile as brightly.

Ace had decided to do something about it a few years back.

* * *

The older brother had gone on a hunting trip, with his little brother, somewhere in a secluded, dense forest.

They had seen wild plants, flowers that were red one moment and blue the next. They'd seen frogs with eight eyes, and butterflies with seven wings. There were even rocks with tongues that grabbed at Luffy's ankles, which Ace had to pry off.

It was an impossibly weird forest, and Ace took Luffy all the way to the edge, where they chanced upon a big hill with a winding Oakwood path.

Ace could remember that adventure as clear as day.

The hill was shaped really weirdly. It looked just like a normal hill, but it had odd, triangle shapes that were joined together in threesomes, that stuck out from the hill. They hadn't understood at first, but the old man that lived in the cottage had told them about it.

Oh, yeah, the old man.

When Ace and Luffy had walked around the hill to look at the weird structures, they'd found a small cottage with a red chimney. There was a tiny, old man with wrinkles around his eyes when he smiled and a twisted piece of wood as a walking stick.

He stood at the door, with the light from his house lighting up the rose garden growing around it. Luffy immediately had big sparkles in his eyes and he screamed 'JII-SAN! CAN I EAT THOSE PRETTY FLOWERS~ THEY LOOK SO DELICIOUS, JII-SAN!' And started running towards the cottage.

The old man laughed a big, hearty laugh and caught Luffy in his arms. The younger sibling was just an inch short of the old man.

The old man had introduced himself as Naguri, and had invited them in for some dinner.

'You'll regret it, gramps.' Ace had warned Naguri with a chuckle.

Luffy promptly began to eat the tiny old man's china plates and metal spoons, inhaling the soup, bread, and most of all, meat, into his bottomless black hole of a stomach.

The old man just laughed at Luffy and called them to come by the fireplace for a story.

'The hill outside? It's name is Nagareboshi Oka. Because the hill looks like stars have fallen onto it. Don't you see those strange triangle things?'

Ace and Luffy were in awe, and hurriedly thanked Naguri before racing up the hilltop.

Ace had reached it first, and was stunned.

He'd glimpsed the view of the whole town for the first time. And when Luffy did too, the younger sibling started smiling with the danger of his face splitting in half.

Ace grinned and they both ran under the willow tree that sat right in the middle, its huge branches leaning down and its leaves swaying softly.

Ace brought his baby brother to the hill every day, giving Luffy the next best thing to a view of real stars. The city lights.

And so, the two brothers would come to the hill every night, in the pitch-black dark, to look down on the city and look at the lights that dotted it.

And Luffy wasn't all that sad anymore.

* * *

"_Na, Ace…! Look, airplanes! They're flying across the sky!" Luffy jumped on Ace's lap, squirming with energy._

_Ace wrapped his arms tightly around Luffy and made him stop wiggling. "I know, Luffy! Stop jumping on me, you're heavy, you know!" Ace grumbled, a vein popping in his forehead._

_Luffy immediately stopped and turned around to look at Ace. His eyes were big and round, so innocent. But there was a subtle hint of mischievousness._

"_Oh, I'm heavy? I guess I should get off Ace-nii-chan and treat him better, ne!" Luffy got off Ace's lap; the older sibling had wide eyes._

_Ace flung his arms out and caught Luffy, pulling him back down and onto his chest. A dark blush was on his cheeks, highlighting his freckles. "Baka… I didn't ask you to go…"_

_Luffy giggled knowingly and smirked up at his older brother, which made Ace's already dark blush even darker, if that was even possible._

"_Na, Luffy… Aren't you sad?" Ace whispered into his brother's ear. "Why would I be sad?" There was clear confusion._

"_Because… Your nii-chan can't make the _real _stars appear." Ace's eyes were downcast and his smile was gone. There wasn't a trace of a blush._

_Luffy turned around in his lap and knocked their pale, chilled foreheads together, his small hands going up around Ace's shoulders. "I'm not sad, at all, Ace. I know you can't make real stars come out, but what you're doing is good enough for me. More than good enough, really. Anything you do will always be. Um…"_

_Luffy turned back to the city view and stared up at the planes that were kind of zooming down. Their yellow windows were lighted up brightly and the quick speed made the lights look like they were flickering. They kind of looked like…_

"_Ace! We can pretend that airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars! Look, look!" Luffy grinned and tugged Ace's collar up._

"_Oh...! You're right! They really do look like shooting stars, don't they? The ones in the books?" Ace grinned with Luffy and put his chin on his little brother's head, breathing in his unique scent. _

"_Luffy…"_

_Ace fell asleep on his baby brother._

_Luffy chuckled and held Ace steady._

_But his older brother would never know the truth. Luffy was sad that his onii-chan couldn't show him real stars. But it was just having Ace be with him to look down at the city lights that made him happy._

Every time after that, the two brothers would silently agree to pretend that airplanes were just like shooting stars.

* * *

I stared down at the old, worn, white drawing papers that have turned yellow and fringed. There were papers with beautiful paintings of the night sky with stars, shooting stars. There was even one with a hill with two black figures; one with a straw hat. Ace had drawn them really well. There were other papers with scrawls and doodles of circles that somewhat resembled stars. Those were mine.

I chuckled softly. The papers were Ace's and mine. We'd kept a drawer-full of drawings like these, pasted them all over our bedroom. I still remember that time when we painted our ceiling. A big blue sky with white and yellow lights, with tiny black airplanes.

Every night before we went to sleep, we'd snuggle under the covers and gaze at our ceiling, dreaming of what could've been.

But now, Ace was gone.

There was nobody to hold me on the hill and watch the city lights with me anymore. A painful tear trailed down my cheek as I stared at the starless sky, damning it all.

There wasn't even a single airplane going across the sky. The city lights looked duller and weaker than ever.

My older brother wasn't here.

My nii-chan.

My Ace.

My star.

In the past, even with the dark sky, there was still one thing I held to be a real star. But now that that one star was put out, my world was now truly starless.

* * *

***onii-chan - older brother**

*** nii-chan - another way of saying/nickname for 'older brother'**

***jii-san - a respectful way of addressing an old man**

***Nagareboshi Oka - 'nagareboshi' means 'shooting star' and 'oka' means 'hill' **

**So, what did you think? Please remember to leave a review/PM me! I'd really like to know if I should continue this story as a multi-chapter one! :) To hardcore AceLu fans: Don't worry, the ZoLu won't overpower the AceLu too much. To hardcore ZoLu fans: Don't worry either. There'll definitely be some well-deserved action for you guys! ;)**

** Thanks for Reading! I LOVE YOU! :)**


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